Benjamin Robert Haydon, William Wordsworth, 1842, London, National Portrait Gallery.
William Wordsworth
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Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2015
(1770-1850)
William Wordsworth
1. Life
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Wordsworth’s House in Cockermouth, Cumberland
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Born in Cockermouth in
Cumberland (Lake District) in
1770.
His father, a lawyer, taught him
poetry and allowed him access
to his library.
In 1791 he got a degree at St
John’s College, Cambridge.
In 1790 he went on a walking
tour of France and the Alps; he
was fascinated by the
democratic ideals of
Revolutionary France.
William Wordsworth
1. Life
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In 1792 he had a daughter, Caroline, from a French aristocratic woman,
Annette Vallon.
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The Reign of Terror and the war between England and France caused
him to return to England. He was disappointed by the period of terror.
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He went to live with his sister Dorothy, in close contact with nature, but
for a few years he lived in Somerset, near his friend Coleridge, with whom
he collaborated in the 1797-1799 period to write Lyrical Ballads.
He got married with a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson, and had 5
children.
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In 1843 he became Poet Laureate.
He became more conservative and went on writing poems until his death
in 1850.
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William Wordsworth
2. Main works
Together with Coleridge, he published:
• Lyrical Ballads, with a Few
Other Poems (1798).
• Lyrical Ballads, with Other
Poems (1800). This edition
contains the famous Preface, the
Manifesto of English Romanticism.
William Wordsworth, Shreveport, James Smith Noel Collection
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William Wordsworth
3. Man and nature
• Wordsworth is usually considered
“the poet of nature”, but his poems
contain very little natural description.
•He was more interested in the
relationship between the natural
world and human consciousness.
View of Buttermere, Crummock Water and the surrounding Fells
from Fleetwith Pike in the English Lake District
• He thought that man and nature are
inseparable and that there are values
in nature. It is from nature that man
learns joy and love.
• Wordsworth exploited the sensibility
of the eye and ear to perceive the
beauty of nature.
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William Wordsworth
4. What is poetry?
From the Preface to Lyrical Ballads
‘Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings: it takes its origins from
emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion
is contemplated till by a species of reaction
the tranquillity gradually disappears,
and an emotion, kindred to that which was
before the subject of contemplation,
is gradually produced, and does itself actually
exist in the mind’
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William Wordsworth
4. The poetic process
Poet
Sensory
Experience
(in nature)
Emotion
Memory
=
Recollection
In tranquillity
Emotion
Reader
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Poem
similar
emotion
William Wordsworth
5. The poet’s task
The poet = a teacher
The poet has a greater sensibility than common man. He is
considered as a prophet because through the power of his
imagination he gets to the real knowledge of the world
Shows men how to
understand their
feelings and
improve their moral
being.
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Draws attention to
the ordinary things
of life where the
deepest emotions
are to be found.
William Wordsworth
6. Wordsworth’s style
John Constable, The White Horse, 1819, New York, The Frick
Collection
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•
Wordsworth was interested
in ordinary, everyday
world and in the common
life of simple, rustic people
(which was full of moral
values).
•
He used simple, everyday
language, and was against
poetic diction (=
sophisticated language)
William Wordsworth
Daffodils (1807)
4 stanzas, regular rhyme scheme.
This poem is not only about nature and daffodils, but also about the process of
poetic creation.
He starts from describing the world of nature, but is particularly interested in the
effects of this world “inside” him, on his feelings.
1. The poet is walking alone in the countryside: he is melancholic and absentminded, he is compared to a cloud which wanders with no definite direction.
Suddenly, he sees a field full of daffodils; the flowers are personalized (a crowd, a
host; dancing).They first appear in a chaotic state (first stanza).
2. In the second stanza they appear as part of a universal order , and they are
compared to the stars in the milky way.
3. The daffodils and the natural landscape around them communicate joy to the
poet, who at first doesn’t realize how important this experience is for him.
4. There is a shift of time (he uses the present tense “I lie”): the poet is now in the
tranquillity of his house, his heart fills with pleasure when he remembers the
experience and his state of solitude becomes positive (“emotions recollected in
tranquillity”, the necessary condition for poetic creation).
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William Wordsworth
Comparison Wordsworth - Leopardi
See handout: comparison between “Canto notturno…” and “My heart
leaps up”:
Both Leopardi and Wordsworth personify natural elements (the moon, the
rainbow), they both give importance to youth (age of hope and illusions),
and they both talk about the stages of human life.
BUT:
To Leopardi nature is indifferent to human suffering; life is just a sequence
of painful moments, and parents have to console their children, adult life is
painful.
To Wordsworth nature is what accompanies and supports us throughout
our whole life, giving us joy and relief.
“The child is father of the man”: children have deeper feelings than adults
and have something to teach them, they are a guide to man because
they’re closer to nature.
“My heart leaps up”: intense emotion (the sublime!)
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